So does this make the primary experience of conversation - people just talking - more central to designing games, or less?

Once we know that chess doesn't really need the pieces be wood and the board be marble, we can forget about the actual things we usually call a chessboard and play out games, I don't know, purely in bits of Morse code.

What's the takeaway from this?

This makes Pag go "Sure we can! "But I still really enjoy playing with a nice set. In other words, the presentation and expression elements of a metaphorical language are big contributors to the experience of using it, even if they have less impact than the rules for how you apply it.